My First Four-Mile Round Trip Beer Hike in Over Two Months

In yesterday's post I expressed my desire that my younger brother would be spending that evening and night with his girlfriend Bev. Well, that certainly came true ─ but not the part where I had wished it so that I would have the evening and the T.V. to myself.

I was just about to tune in an MMA programme ─ it was probably no later than 8:30 p.m. ─ when my eldest stepson arrived home with my brother and Bev immediately behind him.

Bev has Sundays off work; and because she has recently been sharing her residence with an unwanted rat (the actual rodent type of rat), she decided that she would take charge of the opportunity to come here and spend the night.

Apparently they had tried to phone me at some point to alert me to have a good movie selected for playing via our T9 Android 8.1 TV Box, but I had heard nothing.

So I checked.

I have an iPhone 5. Anytime I access the notification of a missed call, the damned phone automatically dials the caller. But at least I was able to directly let my brother know so that he didn't think he had a voicemail from someone else.

It is such an involved process to try and turn off my cellphone to cancel the call that I can never remember exactly how it is done. And by the time I have it figured out, it's of course far too late.

My brother hates getting voicemail like mine because of the bother involved in accessing the service in order to delete the call.

Was it needful to mention that he was drunk?

Anyway, it looked like I was to have an evening entirely unlike what I had intended, and that I would be sitting up late and drinking some beers I had not planned on touching.

Well, I had eaten, but my brother and Bev had brought themselves home a huge Subway sandwich apiece. She's rather scrawny and a very picky eater, so when she pressed me to have half of hers, I complied.

However, she finished her half almost as fast as I did mine, and was then soliciting for some of my brother's, claiming aloud that she was starving.

So much for good deeds.

As for a movie, the two are great at imposing upon me to find one, but they never have any in mind.

I tried a science fiction movie, and then a Western, and cancelled out of both of them because my brother and Bev were non-stop talking and too much of the shows were being lost ─ even to me.

So I tried a Marvel movie that my brother did actually suggest.

Early into it, Bev went outside to have a cigarette.

When she returned into the house, she simply announced that she was going to bed ─ news of which was met with silence from my brother.

It was well before 10:00 p.m., and she had not even finished the beer that she had been poured ─ not that she needed any further drink.

After maybe 10 minutes I became utterly suspicious and looked over at my brother ─ he was passed out. I was watching the movie by myself.

Both annoyed and also relieved for this escape, I cancelled out of the movie and changed the T.V. over to the only news channel that we can receive via the basic cable package that we subscribe to.

I came upstairs here to my computer; and then by 10:20 p.m. was into my bed. And I had avoided having to open one of my cans of beer that I keep in stock.

Although tired, sleep took its time arriving. And eventually I heard my brother lumbering his bulk upstairs and then some very loud conversation between him and Bev.

He must have thereafter gone back downstairs, for soon Bev was at the top of the stairs and calling down to him, asking if there was any of the Subway sandwiches left. She was of course starving, she still claimed.

I have no idea how things played out after that ─ maybe she went downstairs to snack. I just don't know.

I had not shut down my computer before going to bed. Thus, when I finally fell asleep and then awoke in the early a.m., I rose and dressed and came here to get to work on the day's content assignment for the new post I am constructing at one of my six hosted websites.

It's odd that the actual time that I rose is now lost to me, but it may have been soon after 2:00 a.m., or even an hour later. No one else in the house seemed to be up, although initially I thought that there might have been some monitor glow from where my youngest stepson sleeps ─ he often lays in bed while watching a movie or something of that nature.

I never fulfilled the assignment and got back to bed until at least 6:30 a.m.

I managed a little more sleep; and then around 9:30 a.m. decided to get up. As yet, my brother and Bev were still in his bedroom.

But not for too terribly long. After I fixed myself a mug of instant coffee and was doing a few things downstairs, I encountered her heading for the front door to go outside and have a cigarette.

I soon detected that my brother was showering.

There is little else to report concerning the three of us. Some T.V. was watched; and then very early into the afternoon, the two of them headed away together.

I felt like further sleep, but it was a fairly sunny day and I was hungry, so I decided to have some exercise out in the backyard tool-shed first ─ afterward, I would be able to eat and then seek a nap.

I was only going to be wearing runners, cutoffs, and a tank top while exercising, and since the opening exercise were to be pull-ups, I weighed myself here in the house dressed precisely as I would be out in the shed.

Lord, I did not expect to see myself registering at 192 pounds. That was more like the weight I might have seen over the Winter when I might be fully clothed and maybe even wearing a pair of boots.

oooooooooooooo

I took a break soon after 4:30 p.m. to ready for something I have not done in a couple of months, it seems ─ perform the four-mile round trip hike to the government liquor store in Whalley and located at 108th Avenue & King George Boulevard (Google map).

The store closes at 6:00 p.m.

I had wanted to get a rest first for the sake of my eyes, but since I had not even begun to prepare myself for the hike ─ a total change of clothes ─ I realized that I was going to be hard-pressed to get out of here by 5:00 p.m. as it was.

And that was a vast underestimate ─ it was 5:20 p.m. by the time I had set off, wholly unsure if I could cover the two miles in time. 

I was soon breathing hard, and beginning to perspire ─ the sunshine made it warm out there, and I was wearing a denim jacket.

I was to see an outstandingly beautiful ─ nay, undeniably sexy ─ young lass wearing an all-black outfit.

She had such curvaceous long, rather pale legs that stood out for that reason ─ and also because even though she may have had on a very tight ultra-mini skirt, it barely hid her bottom. 

Her arms and shoulders were bare, and her feet were sporting some sort of heels that seemed to be a series of straps ─ her toes and lots of her feet were on display.

Alas, she was on the far side of the street from me by the time I came abreast of her after maintaining my very fast pace, and then she turned and took a right-angle path away from me.

This was over beside the public library (Google map) in Whalley, and I had first seen her coming from the bus exchange over by the Surrey Central SkyTrain Station.

Both male and female eyes all directed her way whenever she was sighted. 

How the young thing had the courage to be public all by herself while dressed like that defies my understanding...I wondered if she might be a streetwalker?

Whatever the case, the vision of her had a phenomenally profound effect on this male ─ elderly or not.

Before I was yet as far as 105-A Avenue (Google map) as I hustled along University Drive, I heard a text arrive on my cellphone. It was 5:46 p.m. and I still had some fair distance to cover.

It was my youngest stepson:

Hey I'm going to Walmart. You need anything? 

Or superstore?

I stopped to try to respond, but I realized that it would be cost me the entire purpose of my trip ─ I was so close. I could not spare a minute.

Besides, the Sun was so bright I could barely see to type out a text.

Somehow I did succeed in getting to the liquor store, and there I bought the two dozen cans of strong (8% alcohol) beer I was after.

I had one other errand to perform ─ on the way home, I was going to deposit the monthly expenses reconciliation cheque that my younger brother had given me at the start of the month.

To do this, I would have to go to an outdoor ATM at the Coast Capital Savings building over by the King George SkyTrain Station. 

A good thing it was that I carried my own deposit envelope ─ there were none available at the ATM.

And from there, home was maybe a mile away at most. However, even though I was no longer hustling due to the load I was bearing ever since I left the liquor store, by the time I was maybe four blocks from home, my feet had lost all lift.

That is to say, I was no longer able to rise upon the balls of my feet to step along. I found myself having to walk almost flat-footed.

But I made it. I was into the house by 6:46 p.m.

Normally the round trip without hurrying takes about 1½ hours. Considering how badly I was dragging myself along on the return journey, the fact that I made the entire round trip in just under 1½ hours is remarkable to me.  

It is now 7:34 p.m. I am going to call it quits here. My younger brother has yet to show up, but he ought to be doing so at any moment. I was surprised not to see him here already by the time I got back.

By the way, I texted my stepson after I was returning from the liquor store, and explained why I had not answered earlier. However, after I got home, I discovered that the stupid message had not been delivered ─ so he still has no idea why I never answered his query.